In Cantonese the word for “Yes” is Hai – straightforward: but “No” is M’Hai, which in essence means “Not Yes” – far less straightforward.
This is Levy’s strategy, he won’t say, “No”, but he will remove all the paths that would lead to a “Yes” outcome. It’s financial, a bad deal, the price for buying/selling is too expensive/cheap, we couldn’t get the deal done before deadline (how many times and we heard that one). It all boils down to not paying the going rate to be a top 4 club.
I can’t see that re-arranging deck chairs will change any time soon, unless of course Uncle Joe turns up his toes, and then things may become more “interesting”, also in the Chinese meaning of that word.
So what do make of it all? Well, Everton is two points behind with two games in hand; we play them in what is a six-pointer and frankly, on form, we’ll likely lose. If the Goons get up in their next game we’re only two points off Totteringhams Day and a solid mid-table. Losing the Carabao, and we might be lucky to make Europe at all.
The ENIC/Levy problem will not change but something has to; Levy is shrewd and tends to sail close to the wind but seldom capsizes, suggesting we’ll be busy this summer. We are potentially off to mid-table land and there has to be a bad smell around the club. Jose will have made his feeling known to some players and will be doing his brinkmanship dance to get rid of deadwood and reinforcing the need to get some decent A-grade new players in.
Will Levy fire Jose? I think not: Levy must know that the fiddle will not play a tune without replacing some of the strings and I think (unless we really implode) Levy will hold firm with Jose and provide him with some of what he wants whilst stringing him along with M’Hai’s. Then again if Jose publicly puts Levy in a corner he’ll go the same way as Poch and for the same thing.
I couldn’t agree more. Football means nothing to him and Levy who pretend they are fans but they are only fans of real estate and filthy lucre!
The president of Patagonia, aka ‘Bahama Joe’, is not interested in the competence of our football, only in the viable moneterisation of our real estate!
Well said. I am glad that you mentioned this. Not enough fans know about this. He is an absolute monster and it should get more airtime. Enic out of Spurs and Patagonia!
Wrong question: When will Levy get fired for hiring M in the first place is the one that should be asked?
But that will come second to his stealing land and natural resources from the indiginous peoples of Patagonia.That is one evil fcuker.
In truth if had been any other of his previous managers Levy might have done the sacking deed by now.
However he has staked much of his reputation on hiring Jose so probably feels inclined to stand by him a little longer. Also from what little I saw of the Amazon documentary Levy almost seemed in thrall to Jose, having finally got his man who he wanted for so long.
Mourinho 2019 is not Mourinho 2003 I’m afraid. The special one is not so special anymore and the fault lines of his previous employments at Chelsea and Man Utd are emerging again.
Like at Chelsea and Man Utd he’s lost or is losing the dressing room. Football management is a difficult balancing act between carrot and stick but absolving yourself of criticism, for poor results, by blaming and singling out the playing personnel really doesn’t work. You may criticise players in private but need to support your players in public. In the end mangers get sacked as it’s easier and cheaper to replace one man rather than a whole team
In the end Jose may prove to be the proof that it is impossible to build and maintain a successful football side under Lewis and Levy
Sadly, I expect not. He is only interested in the value of his property empire but playing in a half empty stadium without CL qualification and flirting with relegation might concentrate his mind a little more into realising that Levy is destroying the brand’s value.
Dier football? 😂
🤔 😆
I’m struggling to think of who could come in and even improve things even in the short term. However this whole Jose thing has reached a dead end, even if we do fluke the Mickey Mouse Cup.
I’m sure Levy is praying that we win that, it would mask a multitude of issues and that what he’s been doing for 22 years anyway. Bale, League Cup, makes no difference to him. It’s just showbiz at a shopping center…
Oh for goodness sake Essex, didn’t you get the memo – he’s a winner.
Is Joe Lewis concerned with the competence of our football?
Now we’re getting somewhere.
Shouldn’t the question read “Should Joe Lewis fire Daniel Levy for 22 years of football incompetence?”
It’s going to be horrible there next season. I think Mou’s appointment was tolerated by many who would swap style and identity for silverware but the ground is going to channel all those negative feelings and the atmosphere is going to be very sour. No reasonable scenario suggests anything but a bad outcome from this.
Being busy is never a good outcome. Building a team takes time, brick by brick. The period when we brought nobody in killed us. Buy 3, promote 1, keep 1 toss 2. Trying to catch-up requires a big turnover and all of a sudden you have a team of strangers again.
Groundhog Day is a good film though. This is like Rocky V. We remember the good old days of Rocky, Rocky III and Rocky IV, but this is terrible and it didn’t stop me watching Balboa!
We wont be busy in the summer. What evidence of the past 20 years leads anyone to think that escapes me. Levy & Co have an MO and they ain’t changing it.
Kane & Son will leave and who would blame them. We’ll buy a buck load of chaff dressed up as the next best thing and round and round we’ll go. Jose will be gone before Xmas 2021 and so we start again.
Watching the goings on at Spurs is like being strapped to a cinema seat watching Groundhog Day over and over again.
I said yesterday, Our club is on life support and the prognosis is bad.
Nobody liked my cake baking analogy.
I don’t want Europa League football. It served us no use whatsoever this season. We didn’t play one decent team in the entire competition. We played players like Kane and PEH far too much and they were never allowed to recover for the league campaign. No wonder we look knackered in the second half and lose points as soon as we go in the lead (Maybe, we should let the other team score first because leading is doing us no favours!).
Wet Spam and Everton were saved of this European distraction and look to be benefitting from it. Back in the 60s, 70s and 80s European football meant something. Playing Bayern and Barca in the UEFA and CWC was always on the cards, but now it is Ch Lg or bust. The only reason anyone can give is to play in this competition is to make money from the crowd. It is not a realistic method to win a trophy either. Why? Because we don’t win trophies anymore.
No disrespect to Slavia Prague, but the media are bigging up Thursday as being a massive game for Arsenal. How far that club has fallen is remarkable, but we are hot on their heels. Whatever Arsenal can do we can do better. Losing to Zagreb demonstrates just that.
Everyone gets to go out, to go to shops and heavily vetted beer gardens on “opening day” or Ramadan as some call it…..
Ahhh, coincidinks everywhere
The failures this season and the brand of football will have already laid the foundations for a potentially toxic atmosphere at the stadium next season (when we expect crowds to be let back in, certainly to an extent).
I just don’t feel that Jose has done enough to convince the majority of people that he’s the right man to turn around the team’s fortunes. At a different club with different owners blah blah? Who knows, but we aren’t and they aren’t so what’s the point?
Levy might not be ambitious on the pitch but he’s certainly keen on the stadium brand, he wants fans drinking bottom filling pints, spending money after a few and going home jolly. Win, lose or draw. To do that you need a style of football that suggests positive vibes. Even if it’s an illusion…
Me too mate, me too.
The thought of another season, treading water, with Maureen in charge, playing dire football, really depresses me!